Day Out With Thomas

Thomas coming into the station.

Trinity on a cranky car.

Topher on a cranky car. This is hard work for someone with low muscle tone and lax joints. But Topher is a very determined little guy!

Josh on the little Thomas riding toy. 75 cents for a very short trip that takes you nowhere.

You Might be the Mom of a Child with Special Needs If.....

..you have your insurance policy number memorized.

..you realize your child is still little and their Carter's are not worn out. (for those of us old enough to remember the old Carter's commercial)

..you have learned to laugh at things that would bring an ordinary woman to tears. And you cry about things that others think are funny:(

..you can calmly perform the Heimlich manuever, and sit back down to continue your meal.

..after you have performed the Heimlich manuever, you can reach over and wipe the chocolate oozing from your child's nose and it does not activate your gag reflex.

..you spend more time talking on the phone to your child's doctor than you do with your best friend. In fact, your child's doctor IS now your best friend.

..you go to Hershey several times a year to the specialists, but have not been to Hershey Park for over 10 years.

..you don't let your husband get rid of odd peices of lumbar because you want your child to use them as a balance beam or obstacle course, to improve balance and gross motor skills.

..you have knees that are more calloused than the average woman from kneeling on the floor to be at face level with a smaller than average four year old. And from all the extra time kneeling before the Lord, asking for the grace to get through another crisis.

..you feel panicked because no one has hugged you, or bit you, in the past 10 minutes.

..you forget that not all four year olds can understand sign language.

The Empty Neighborhood

One day, a few months ago, my daughter and I were out and made a wrong turn. In the process of getting back on track, we ended up in one of those new housing developements. You know the ones, they have houses that all look alike, like they were made of cookie cutters.

This developement was strange, it was devoid of people, there were no visible cars, there were no signs of life at all. Especially missing were the evidence of the presense of children.

The lawns were all perfectly manicured, the landscaping perfect. The houses all had lovely decorations on the doors and curtains in the windows. It was like a beautiful showroom.

There were no noises, other than the sound of our van. A strange hush on that part of the planet. Rather than being like the lovely quietness of a forest, or meadow, it was unpleasant and unattractive. I felt like I had crossed into another dimension, like something out of The Twilght Zone.

I am certain, during the time of day we happened to find ourselves in the neighborhood, all the owners were away, hard at work, earning money to pay for their manicured piece of dirt. Working so hard, in fact, that they did not have the time to really live in those houses. No time for children, even if they had the desire for them.

I remember feeling relief when I finally found my way out of that neighborhood.

When I pulled into my driveway I was greeted by the usual sight of worn out, patchy looking grass, the ugly sand turtle, and bikes, that were left haphazardly, as my children ran to the van to greet me.
While others may like those quiet, neat, perfect houses in that other neighborhood, I'll take my old house full of children to love.

Another School Year is Complete

We had our homeschool evualtions yesterday, the official end of our school year. Even though I have been homeschooling for many years, since 1994, I always breath a sigh of relief at having all the legal requirements completed.
Our evaluator commented how he is always amazed at how much our family covers each year, all that my children accomplish. I was surprised to hear him say that. I do not really know what others cover, since I don't compare myself and my children to other families. I don't really ask other moms what they are doing.
I need to remind myself to look at the big picture sometimes. I get bogged down with the work of each day that I can easily overlook the fact that each of my children have made good progress. One of my children has made great progress, and has bloomed into a scholar who loves to learn.

What a blessing it is to be able to teach my children. It does not always feel like a blessing in the daily grind of life, but it is a blessing. One of the things that brings me the most satisfaction as a homeschool mom is listening to my children read from the Bible! Isn't that the true purpose of learning to read?

While the children are all enjoying a bit of a break from the bookwork, my job continues. The excitement of planning for another school year is always a pleasure.

The Trip to the Pediatric Ophthalmologist

Josh had an appointment with his eye doctor last Wednesday. It was just a routine visit, but routine can turn out otherwise with Josh. We have had so many twists and turns with his condition that I never look at an appointent as "just a routine visit".

Josh's appointment went well. His eye pressures were 15 in his healthy eye, and 19 in his eye with PHPV, microphthalmia, and aphakic glaucoma. It was exactly the same as it had been the previous visit. Stable is good. The last visit there was some concern that his pressure was beginning to creep up a bit.
Josh read the big boy eye chart for the very first time. He had been reading the one with the shapes, and had it memorized. The program I use to teach my children to read does not have a lot of practice with capitol letters in kindergarten. I decided to begin drills for capitols. His vision was exactly the same in his right eye, the one with the problems, 20/50 (with his contact lens and glasses, of course.) His left eye needed a prescription change, it was only 20/40, but with the prescription change, he was able to see 20/20. I have to wonder if we would picked up on his need for a prescription change if he had not been able to read the letter chart.

The non-routine event of the day had nothing to do with Josh.
As we were leaving to go to the doctor's office, Christopher poked Sarah in the eye with his fingernail. Sarah had already planned to go with me, so I went ahead and took her along, never realizing just how badly her eye really hurt. She is a bit over dramatic, which is typical for her age.

When we got to the doctor's office, the doctor was in the reception area and heard us talking about Sarah's mishap. He came out to the waitingroom to have a look. He told us he would have a better look when they called Josh back to a room.
Turns out Sarah had a corneal abrasion! She needed antibiotic drops and a follow-up visiton Friday. On Friday, her cornea looked better, but she still had blurry vision in that eye. We have to go back in 4-6wks to have it checked again.

A Mother's Day to Remember

Most of us cannot remember exactly where we were and what we were doing on each holiday. I know I cerainly cannot. But Mother's Day 2011 is an exception. I will always remember.

While most moms were waking to a lovely breakfast made especially for them by their beloved children, I was waking to a hospital room in the pediatric unit of our local hospital. Well, not exactly waking, since I had not exactly slept. I was spending the weekend of the celebration of motherhood continuing in my call of duty as a mother.

Trinity, our smallest shoe dweller was very ill. We went to the ER in the wee hours of Saturday morning, what I would generally consider the middle of the night. She had a cold and was having increased difficulty breathing. She was wheezing and struggling, and at some point became very listless and sleepy. I knew it was bad. I went prepared for a hospital admission. But I was not prepared for how bad it was to become.

Saturday night Trinity's oxygen level was very low and she needed to have a nasal canula to give her some O2. My little girl, who will barely tolerate a hat or barrette, slept through this, she did not mess with it even when she stirred in her sleep. She is also a child who does not sleep through the night, yet she slept.

Very early on Mother's Day morning the pediatrician came in to talk to me. She was concerned that Trinity was getting worse instead of better, in spite of the IV antibiotics an steroids. She was not holding her oxygen levels, she was lethargic, her oral intake was very low and her diapers very dry. She wanted to prepare me for the possibility of sending Trinity to Penn State Children's Hospital, in case she needed to be intubated, there would be a pediatric pulmonolgist available.

The pediatrician ordered another chest xray, to have a look at the progression of the pnuemonia, and started IV fluids, rather than continue with just a saline lock for meds.
When the pediatrician came in to tell me the results of the xray, she talked more about the probability of sending Trinity to the children's hospital.
I felt so helpless, so I did the first thing that came to my mind: Pray, and call our pastor before he went in for service, to have others pray!
Then I called home to my husband, to have him and the other children pray.

I felt at peace, knowing my little girl was covered in prayer and that God had it all under control. (He had it all under control before we prayed, but praying reminded me that He was in control.)

The morning wore on and my little blessing slept. My husband came in to have lunch with me in the cafeteria and to bring gifts and cards from the children. Still she slept.

About 1pm, which is soon after our second service ends, Trinity awoke. She was still week, but her oxygen levels came up. As the day wore on, she got stronger and seemed more like her usual busy little self.

That night, when the next pediatrician on duty came in, she looked at Trinity and said how good she looked. She was not seeing any of the scarey things her collegue had seen in the previous 18-24hrs. But she wanted to keep her another night to make sure she did not relapse.

Monday was a busy day. Trinity was not content to lay in the crib and watch cartoons, as they had hoped. She wanted to walk the halls and talk to other babies. The pediatrician wanted to send her home, but the only thing stopping her was Trinity was not eating. She was still nursing, but she would not eat a single bite of their food.
By Monday evening they listened to my mommy wisdom that Miss Trinity will eat when she is home with her siblings. They let us go home. Instead of being transferred to the children's hospital, we were allowed to go home!

How happy I was to be home and see my other children. How grateful and joyous I was that the Lord healed my baby girl.
God is more than faithful!!

What made Mother's Day memorable for you??